Central Florida Future

Issue date: 11/24/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Gage Young

When Brendon Rivard stands before the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws members, he has one simple message: Reform isn't sparked by what you say, but by how you say it.

"Let's role play," Rivard said to his NORML activists in training. "Pretend I'm a college Republican debating you in front of the Student Union."

Rivard zips his jacket up to his neck. "The higher the zipper the more neo-conservative," Rivard said with a grin. "I say I'm a constitutionalist, and I don't think the forefathers would have approved of legalizing hemp. What do you say?"

Kaila Nichols eagerly raises her hand.

" 'Some of my finest days have been spent on my veranda smoking hemp,' " Nichols said, quoting Thomas Jefferson.

As president of NORML's UCF chapter, Rivard works closely with his fellow students to ensure strong talking points like Nichols' aren't lost in members' short-term memory.

He's learned that the way to talk about reform, is to speak so that policy makers will accept your message as well as understand it.

Whether shaving his head to play a cancer patient for political street theater, drafting bills as a senator in student government, or standing in front of the Union debating nay-sayers Rivard uses every experience as a lesson in argument and the language of compromise.

"Rivard's first position in NORML was director of communications," said Tyler Smith, NORML's current communications director. "We have to be careful not to give the wrong message to people. We are a group promoting drug reform, not drug use."

Smith said Rivard's guidance helped him fill the communications position when NORML elected Rivard as president. Rivard credited his first NORML position with teaching him how to talk to students about cannabis reform.

"Being on the ground all the time got me to meet a lot of students who both agreed with me and disagreed with me on a lot of issues," Rivard said. "It helped me understand that no one student's opinions are ever right. It takes a combination of different aspects of an opinion to really make the perfect policy. The goal is to compromise, meet in the middle and see where you can take the best of both aspects."

Rivard desperately wanted to reform UCF's sanctions on cannabis, but administrators were reluctant to tackle the issue for fear of encouraging drug use among students. He needed to find the right strategy to reach a compromise.

Continued...

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